Gardeners urged to put bananas in gardens this spring and summer

Gardening is a relaxing hobby for many and has been proven to lower stress levels while also burning calories.

But like any hobby, it can also be expensive, with specialist tools, fancy soil boosters and fertilisers lined up on garden centre shelves tempting into parting with their green. But there is a very cheap and easy way to boost all of the plants in your - without needing any expensive, specialist feed. Just use bananas.

The humble yellow fruit, as well as being a vitamin-rich source of potassium for you and me, is also a great way to boost your garden. Everything from roses to hydrangeas, strawberries to potatoes can be boosted with the help of banana peel this spring and summer.

Banana peel can be added to any heap or compost pile in your garden to create nutrient rich soil to spread around your garden at no cost.

As Gardening KnowHow explains: "Many people are excited to find out that they can use banana peels as fertiliser. Using banana peels in compost is a great way to add both organic material and some very important nutrients to your compost mix

"Putting banana peel in your pile will help add calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphates, potassium and sodium, all of which are important to the healthy growth of both flowering and fruiting plants. Bananas in compost also help add healthy organic material, which help the compost retain water and make soil lighter when added to your garden.

"Beyond this, banana peels will break down quickly in , which allows them to add these important nutrients to the compost much more quickly than some other compost materials."

Composting needn't involve expensive kit either - you can make a heap in a small sheltered corner of your garden, or turn old wooden crates into makeshift compost containers. To go the whole hog, you can also buy discount compost bins from your local council via GetComposting.com.

The website offers cheaper composting equipment sent straight from local councils, in partnership with different authorities across the country.